Monday, December 14, 2015

They just don't get it. He said some of the most outrageous and unconventional things. It was universally condemned by the political, media and intellectual elites across the board, from left to right and from right to left. And yet, the sheep are not responding. In fact even more of them are now following him. It seems as if the further he gets from what they see in the mirror every morning, the more popular he becomes. How can Donald Trump pull this off? Is he a political genius? Is it magic? Are the people not listening? Or perhaps the people are increasingly giving up on our entire elite strata, due to their failures?

Economic failure.

By far, the biggest failure of our western elites, which also has to a large degree to do with its social failure, is the failure to properly manage the long-term health of our economy. That may seem like a puzzling statement to make if one is to only look at living standards. To be sure, if we are to go by the HDI index or by GDP/capita rankings, we see that Western societies tend to dominate the top spots. Having said that, there are many indicators which confirm that average living standards in the Western world are in relative decline. For instance, in the US, we have the declining median household income situation.

As we can see, real median household incomes are now very far from the 1999 peak, which essentially means that we are very far away from living standards American households achieved in that year. Other measures such as food stamp recipients and so on confirm the fact that things are not as great as they used to be. We are in decline and people feel it. The effect may have been partially offset by lower interest rates which seem to be destined to remain near record lows, regardless of this month's decision to raise rates for the first time in almost a decade.

Things in Europe are not looking better. Europe's economy has been essentially flat since 2007. In other words, in real terms it remained the same size. The end result is an increase in poverty, as well as a bleak situation faced by the continent's youth. The high unemployment rate, which is double that in the US says it all.

Even in countries where the unemployment rate is low, such as in Germany, there is an increase in poverty. In fact, poverty levels are now highest since reunification two and a half decades ago.

Social failure.

On this front, the biggest failure is in Europe, because of the nature of European society, which I will touch on in another article. North American society to a large degree sees itself as an offshoot of Europe. But it is an offshoot made up of a mix of diverse European cultures and traditions. If one talks to people of European descent in North America about their background, it is usually an answer that goes along the lines of; "My mother came from Italy and my father is a mix of Germans who came three generations ago and Polish." So, if asked "is it is alright to have a large influx of people coming from Asia, Africa and Middle East?" the response will be largely that it has to be, after all, "my ancestors are immigrants to this place as well." Sometimes people will express some concern in private conversations in regards to their country losing its European offshoot characteristics. Some will even wander whether it is wise to relinquish our majority population status, given that we don't know exactly how our children and grandchildren will be treated within such circumstances. In some private conversations I have had with people who lived at some point in Vancouver for instance, where about half the population is of Asian descent, discrimination by groups of large Asian population clusters against all others was an issue often raised. People tend to shy away from talking about it in a more public setting, because any such issues being raised, most often leads to accusations of racism by the PC police. What we are seeing now with the rise of Donald Trump seems to be a revolt against the PC autocracy, which has been extremely vicious, with people who are accused of racism, often being stigmatized, or even losing their jobs.

Of course, if one listens to the mainstream media "analysis", they will offer us explanations along the lines "Trump is tapping into underlying racism, prejudice, which still exists within our society." The fact that both establishment parties in the US failed and the people who are increasingly impacted by it never ever comes up, of course.

Let us look at the whole concept of illegal immigration. Much of it is rooted in the long-term strategy to make food as cheap as possible, in order to free up consumer demand for other products. Thus the family farms, which once upon a time produced quality produce for the rest of us to enjoy, while giving families a chance to scratch a middle class existence out of the dirt were replaced with the large factory farms. Those who gave up their farms in the process, moved to the city, so there was a need to get replacements. This is why illegal immigration was tolerated from the start. After all, can we really imagine those California vegetable farms surviving without the illegal migrants? Ignoring the laws of the state is extreme, yet this is what the solution provided by our elites has been. Yet, they now wonder why there is a shift to the other extreme, because of course, they do not see themselves as extreme, but widely accepted mainstream. They have been making it work for many decades.

Encouraging consumer demand is also responsible for the increased demand for foreign high-skill imports. Most of us who finished university or even high school in the past few decades know that most kids work part-time while in school. That is in order to be able to afford certain things that make the North American teenage and undergrad experience fun, or at least tolerable, such as having a car, some decent clothes and a little bit of beer money, which our parents would be hard-pressed to provide us with. We have been shown in countless movies for many decades, that this is what we have to do and most of us do it. Of course, there are many who also do it, because they really have no other choice, due to financial circumstances. I believe there is a growing rank of young people who belong in that category. We made great consumers in the process, which is very important to our consumer-driven economy. Unfortunately, many of us will fail to reach our academic potential, due to the demands on our time, which are excessive, given the need and desire to work while in school.

But, once again, we are told by out elites that there is a solution, and the good news is that it fits within the currently accepted ideological framework. We can import our mid-level elites. The focus is currently on getting PhD's and students mainly from Asia, which is now North America's largest source of migrant inflow. We are told that it is good for the economy, therefore good for us. These people are smart and they will contribute to innovation as well as to the better functioning of every aspect of our society. But this too is an extreme solution, because it automatically suggests that most of us can forget about our own children achieving mid-level elite status. It is increasingly not just the large inflow of well-educated migrants mainly from Asia, which provides the North American labor force with a disproportionate source of professional elites. Their children are helped by the fact that they have a lower divorce rate and their parents, many of which are already professional elites make great sacrifices for their children when it comes to their education, which is all very admirable (link). There is also the one aspect that is never talked about, namely the fact that Asian ethnic groups display a much higher degree of group competition on the job market. In other words, they are very likely to favor their own kind when in a position to do so.

There are no studies on this of course, nor should we ever expect such studies to appear. I have seen a few instances myself and I have had a few conversations with people who witnessed a similar thing happen. For instance someone once told me of a Chinese member of a hiring committee, who picked out all the fellow Chinese resumes as potential candidates, excluding all others. This should not come as a surprise, because we should remember that people from different cultures come with different values. We cannot expect a Chinese person educated in China for instance to have been exposed to the same level of education in regards to the unethical aspects of ethnicity-based discrimination. This tends to be an exclusively Western trend as far as I am aware. Furthermore, different cultures may have stronger ethnic kinship bonds than others.

So, in effect, our elites are failing to provide with adequate educational resources for those who were born here and parents are not encouraged to invest in their children's education, but to consume. Children grow up learning from society that focus on education should be shared with focusing on obtaining money in order to become a good consumer. In other words, we are encouraged to get a job in order to be able to afford to live the American teenage and perhaps undergrad dream of having lots of fun, even if our parents who are increasingly struggling to make ends meet, cannot afford to help us in that goal. We are asked to trade in our children's futures for marginally lower taxes, which leads to less spending on education. Hollywood-promoted social engineering discourages our children from focusing on educational achievements, in favor of pouring our energy and resources into engaging in cheap consumerism. And of course, even those who do otherwise and do achieve a higher level of education, are increasingly faced with affirmative action programs, in other words, legal discrimination or as is lately the case, faced with groups of people who compete on the job market as an ethnic collective,which might have not been a problem a few decades ago, but now with the number of people belonging to a visible ethnic minority within the strata of professional elites becoming ever-more present or even dominant in some fields, one is likely to encounter such discriminatory situations whether we are aware of it or not.

It is no wonder then that America, long known as the land of opportunity, now happens to be one of the countries with the lowest levels of social mobility in the developed world.

With the promise of a decent future for themselves and their children increasingly ringing hollow and a feeling of marginalization in favor of importing elites from abroad, it is no wonder then that the mainstream center elite no longer attracts an increasing number of people. A few attempts to link support for Donald Trump and his ideas with a low level of education & income were made in the recent past.

In other words, Trump appeals to the low end, to the dumb ones, who don't know any better but to share in his populist bigotry and fear mongering against non-white foreigners. In fact, support for Trump comes mainly from the increasing ranks of white people who are not making it. These numbers will only increase and it will not only be those who are not making it, but those close to them who will increasingly find that Trump's message appeals to them. After all, we all sympathize with our siblings, children, parents, cousins and so on. It is is because the current elites are failing these people that Trump is increasingly popular. And even if they will band together and join forces on the left and the right in order to defeat him as the French elites recently did in France's regional elections, in order to deny the right-wing FN regional gains, it will not be the end of it. Fact is that what the current elites have to offer in terms of ideas and ideology are not cutting it for an increasing number of people. They feel that the system and the leaders they have been electing are failing them, so they look for someone else.

About Me

Author of book "Sustainable Trade". Book's central subject is a proposal for the elimination of all current bilateral, and multilateral trade agreements, in favor of a new tariff system meant to encourage sustainability. Double honors degree in History and Anthropology, and a B.A in Economics.